Customer Reviews

To the Blight (The Eye of the World, Book 2)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This and part 1 is merely repackaging of the 1st hard-bound book [Eye of the World]. The advertisment reads as if it is a prequel. Wrong. The publisher just figured another way to make a few more dollars. The Eye of the World and all of the remaining books of "The Wheel of Time" are outstanding. They didn't need / require this treatment!

I know a lot of people who dislike Jordan's more recent works, believing that he is stretching things for the sake of money. Now I'm convinced as well.

Robert Jordan fans, this book is not a new book -- for several months I assumed that he was stretching his genre to encompass kids as well, perhaps trying to entice them to read his doorstopper adult series of fantasy volumes. There is nothing wrong with that. However, when I went into a bookstore and flipped through the first volume, I was astonished to see text from a book I HAD ALREADY READ. In short, Jordan took "Eye of the World", chopped it in half, sold the halves, and now is pulling in nearly twice the cash per copy.

This book is the second half of EotW, with "From the Two Rivers" as the first half. The differences? Well, they are still thick; they do, however, have slightly larger print, so if you are an elderly Jordan reader you might want to purchase these. What changes are made for kids? Well, the ghastly adult covers are replaced by a more realistic, less weird-looking cover, and pictures are added to the inside. These were also a disappointment: the books might be better worth it if they had decent artwork, but the inside pictures are blurry and grainy, and not worth more than a fleeting glance.

Writing style? I may be wrong, but if some kids don't have the attention span to get through "The Hobbit" or "Chronicles of Narnia," methinks they will never get beyond page two of Jordan's immensely detailed and complex doorstopper epic. My opinions qualitywise can be found elsewhere, as a review for the adult version of EotW.

Unless a single 800-page tome scares your kid, or if you find the print easier to read, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. I can only hope that there will not be future one-book-made-into-two-for-kids editions.

This volume (which cannot stand on its own as a story) is the second half of THE EYE OF THE WORLD, from "Flight Down the Arinelle" to the final chapter, "The Wheel Turns". The book opens with the same set of quotations as does THE EYE OF THE WORLD proper. The chapters are numbered as for the entire book, beginning with chapter 24, and the head-of-chapter icons were retained. As usual in Wheel of Time books, a glossary is included, in this case differing from that given to Part One, FROM THE TWO RIVERS.

Apart from some very minor tweaks to the glossary, the material hasn't been modified from its counterpart in THE EYE OF THE WORLD.

Due to the size of THE EYE OF THE WORLD, I'd recommend investing in a hardcover edition of the entire book rather than a paperback, because a single paperback won't hold up well even on a first read. Failing that, the split-into-two-volumes form represented before you is worth considering. A few illustrations were added, all character portraits. Although they appear to be of better artistic quality than their counterparts in THE WORLD OF ROBERT JORDAN'S THE WHEEL OF TIME (faint praise, I know) the print quality is quite poor where they're concerned.

This is only the The Eye of the World divided into two parts so children will have more of a desire to read it. Some kids would refuse to read 800 page books (some adults do too), so divinding it into two volumes with an added Prologue for the tinny-bops and extended glossary will sell more copies. There is not anything wrong with that and if you collect Wheel of Time books, you can add these to your collection.

The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1) is the original first book in the Wheel Of Time series. It is an excellent book, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in an enormous fantasy series.

This book is merely the SECOND HALF of The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1), if you already own The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1) DO NOT buy this book. Why it was ever released is a mystery to me, someone is probably trying to make more money from the series.

If you already bought From The Two Rivers: The Eye of the World, Book 1 (Wheel of Time (Starscape)), which is the FIRST HALF of The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1),then you should buy this book, otherwise, ignore it.

Don't buy this book if you already have the Book One, The Eye of the World. It really is just the last part of the Book One. The type is larger but it was a waste of money and time for us. Upon reading it, everything sounded very familiar (even after reading *all* the available books in the series) and upon a little research, it is a duplicate. Strange that there isn't a first half of Book One. Why did the publisher do this?

Many, many years ago I received 'The Eye of the World' for Xmas. Within days I became immersed in a world of magic, myrdraal, ogres and the dark one.

Then 12 books later I just got sick of it all. I mean how many times do I want to hear about the embroidery on Nynaeve or Elayne's dresses?

I love this book, but its like crack. If you haven't started it all ready, don't start now.

Misleading. What was most misleading was part one "From the Two Rivers" has the lable on the front of the book that says "A New Prologue by the Author". The first book, "From the Two Rivers", does have a pre-prologue that I have not read before called "Earlier-Ravens". It is a 12 page depiction of Egwene (as a child) carrying water at Bel Tine in the spring during sheep shearing. I usually get my hands on everything I can that was written for the WOT series and I don't remember running across this bit of info. It was not worth buying the books for this pre-prologue. The rest of Part One "From the Two Rivers" and all of Part Two "To the Blight" are just "The Eye of the World" word for word, split into two parts. This was published by Starscape (a Tom Doherty Associates, LLC publisher)and not by TOR (also Tom Doherty). The cover art was done by another artist (Charles Keegan), not by Darrell K. Sweet.

Yes, yes, I know that this is merely the second part of a book that was written more than a decade ago, but that book, "The Eye of the World", is one of the greatest works of fantasy in history, and the series which follows it isn't too shabby either. The one purpose this book, and it's counterpart, "From the Two Rivers," serves is to get people that are intimidated by the size of The Eye of the World to work up their courage and try it.

Although the storyline is reminiscient of a few hobbits we all know, the genre that the Lord of the Rings started was turned on its head witht the soryline written here. Through narrow escape after narrow escape, Rand, Mat, Perrin, and Egwene come of age in this trial by ordeal. Incredibly rich detail drips off of each page, and the climax is worthy of standig alone against any other fantasy epic.

ALthough I can't give 5 stars to a remake of another book, I heartliy endorse the book and the series.

However, can someone explain to me why Egwene, in the middle of a pitched battle with twisted trees and fierce Blightcreatures, appears to be cutting off her hair, on the cover?

Regardless of what these other reviewers have said (obviously they did zero research before buying the book) this is still the first book of the Wheel of Time series which is argueably the best series ever. Just because they split the book in two to introduce new readers is no reason to give a bad review. Although I wouldn't buy the book for extra 12 pages, it is still an amazing story, superbly written and is much easier to handle then the hugh 700-800 page volumes that are release. For anyone who reads Fantasy this book in either form is a must!!!